Killer's Treat
by Troblem
Summary: A new criminal has come to New York City. She's a psychopath who takes pride in her murders. Beckett and Castle are pulled into the investigation to bring this mad woman to justice. Though as they become closer to the case and her, will they want to?
1. Chapter 1

As two uniformed cops drag out a middle-aged man from the interrogation room, Richard Castle celebrates another victory over the villains of New York City in his chair next to Detective Kate Beckett's desk. He shoots his hand up in the air, waiting for the other half of the high five to come from her. She clicks away on her laptop, filling in the electronic paper work for the case they just closed. With a slight glance to the still hanging hand, she smirks and continues typing. Richard inches it closer to her face, not letting her forget the hand waiting for hers.

"Not happening Castle," she simply says, no changes her in position. Kate is determined to finish these forms done in time to have some evening time open for her book, coincidentally the lasted from the man sitting next to her, Heat Wave.

"Come on," he pleaded; inched his hand a bit closer. "We were awesome on that case!"

She pushes his hand down to his lap, without looking at him. Kate even managed to continue pecking away at the keys with one hand. "High fives are childish."

Richard looks hurt until he sees Detectives Kevin Ryan and Javier Esposito coming towards them. He shoots his hand out behind himself, "Boys, you won't leave me hanging right?"

"Not after that slam dunk," Ryan replies with a smack to Richard's hand. Esposito is quick to follow on their way by.

Kate rolls her eyes at the computer screen. Thinking how she needs a "Do Not Feed The Animals" sign next to Castle's chair. Then she wonders, and lets it be known aloud, "Why don't you go home Castle?"

"Cause this is how we always wrap cases. You say something cop-like, I say something amazingly clever, and then everyone goes home happy."

"I've got two short forms left to fill out. Go home."

"But you'll miss on my amazingly clever comment." Richard is smirking, wanting to banter a bit more with Beckett.

"I'll live Castle. Go, really." She clicks away on the keyboard, a bit faster then she had before to try to get her point across.

Richard puts his hands up in surrender. "Alright. I'll go. Goodbye, dear Beckett. May you have pleasant dreams of me."

Kate lets out a burst of laughter. "Traded clever for just plain awful I see."

Richard has by now stood and taken a few steps from the desk. He turns back to her, "I will let that slide, only because it is really your sadness to see me go coming out in an angry manner."

Kate simply waves at him without looking up. Richard turns away, still smirking (this is his normal expression really; which was very unsettling to Beckett), and leaves the police department. He hails a taxi outside and arrives at his apartment twenty minutes later. His daughter Alexis and mother Martha are just settling in for a chick-flick on the TV.

"Who died today?" Alexis asked turning around on the couch to see him.

He gets down on his knees behind the couch, bringing up his best impression of a movie trailer voice over, "He was a man at the end of his rope. Desperately searching to find a way to survive. He-"

Martha bats him away, "Richard, enough of that nonsense. Our movie is starting." Martha turns Alexis around, reminding her that is why they were there to begin with.

Alexis looks back to her father, mouthing 'Later' to him. He winks and nods to her. Before leaving he gives both women a kiss on the head. This is because Richard Castle does not do anything halfway. Not when it comes to living, writing, and especially loving- that being a truth he was seeing more and more when around Kate Beckett.

Richard heads into his office, a goal of a few new pages written for his next book circling his head. Though it would all depend on if his FarmVille crops were ready to harvest.

* * *

The next morning Richard sat at the kitchen counter, munching away on some Frosted Flakes and reading the morning paper when his phone vibrated on the table. Looking at the screen he saw it was Beckett calling him. Dropping the spoon, which had been halfway to his mouth, back into the bowl and picked up his phone to answer. Unaware that he had also dipped his paper into his bowl as he turned to talk into the phone. "Morning Beckett."

"Got a case at the Hilton. Be fast Castle. Don't want to miss the fun," Kate spoke quickly before hanging up. He had been out of his chair at the world Hilton.

Richard shoved his phone into his pocket and grabbed for his coat. Still unaware of the condition of the newspaper he hands it to Alexis, "You wanted it next, right?"

"Thanks," she slowly replies and slips it from him. Alexis tosses it back onto the table as he walk out of the apartment.

There is a taxi hailed for him outside the building and Richard tells the driver the address. Once they pull into traffic, his phone goes off again. Looking down, he sees a text from Beckett. He thinks for a moment how she never just texts him, but opens it anyway. It reads, "Second body found at 3249 Sundale Apt. #28. Moving there."

"I already love this case," he laughs and tells the driver the new address. When he arrives that the building, he is even more curious about this new case. The apartment building was nothing to look at. Basic brick building outside and the inside lobby area was sparsely furnished; also it was surprisingly empty for there being a crime scene. Though the concern is pushed away in another moment when he realizes that Beckett must be holding everyone on the floor of the scene. That way no one slips away from her. Although he was now wondering how the case could shift from the Hilton to here.

Upon arriving on the second floor, he saw no one in the hallway. No cops questioning tenets, no tenets peaking out doorways, no small mass of people outside apartment 28. Though Richard, the prime example of a curious mind, still made his way to the apartment door; which was surprisingly closed. He wonders if this is some top-secret case, with a big name suspect, and that explained the missing chaos in the hall. With renewed excitement, Rick opens the door to see nothing. The apartment was completely empty. He looked to the door and saw a brass 28 nailed to it. Rick pulled out his phone, preparing to ask Beckett what kind of joke this was (other then a bad one), when the door was pulled from his hand and opened completely. A brunette woman, hair coming just past her shoulders, in a black hoodie and blue jeans stood smiling before him. She plucked the phone out of his hand, tucking it away in her hoodie pocket, "No phone calls for now. Not till after I have my little chat with you."

"Hey...how about...you...I," Richard stuttered and then turned to run. The woman caught his coat and pulled him back, with a surprising amount of force. He stumbles back into the apartment, giving the woman time to shut and lock the door. As he opens his mouth to shout for help, a fist- connected to a man- comes out from another room and meets his face. Rick's head smacks the wall, sending him to the ground.

"Why'd you hit him Idiot?" the woman snaps.

"He was going to shout for help. I had to stop him," the man replied.

"That's what the chloroform is for idiot. The rag in your other hand?" She points out to him.

Rick begins to move and tries to put together a sentence, but the man is closing in on him and pressing the rag against his mouth.

* * *

Kate checked her phone for the time as the man she was questioning was trying to remember who he saw coming in to the room last night. It'd been 45 minutes since she'd called Castle. He hadn't called to explain what was taking him. The guy began listing a few names and Kate scribbled them down on her notepad. He walked away from her. Esposito came up to her, "You call Castle yet?"

"About 45 minutes ago. Has he contacted either of you?"

"Not me. Maybe he's got caught up with something at home?"

"I told him we were at the Hilton. Nothing would stop him from coming." Kate pulled out her phone again, calling Castle, but there was no answer. Though she was curious about where he was, that didn't change the fact that there was a case to be solved. Shoving her phone back into her pocket she went to the next witness to question.


	2. Chapter 2

When Rick came to he was stiff, probably because his arms were tied behind him to the chair he was in. His legs were strapped in as well, along with his mouth being covered. In front of him sat the brunette woman and the black haired man sat in front of him in separate chairs. The woman was scolding the man, "-cannot believe you hit him!"

"Normally you want me to hit people more often," he shot back.

"Not when the person you're about to hit is Richard Castle."

"You weren't doing anything to shut him up."

"Because the plan was just to knock him out with chloroform. It was a simple plan that you managed to mess up. That's why I keep you out of things Rick."

Richard made an attempt at shouting. Not to try to call for help,but to get the attention on to himself. It didn't seem like a selfish thing to do when he was the person being held hostage. The two looked to him, the woman smiled brightly. "Hey there! You pulled out of that fast, though that's probably because somebody didn't put much chloroform on the rag to begin with." By the end of the sentence she was still smiling, but there was a razor edge to her voice.

"Did you want to be sitting here for hours just waiting for him to wake up? We shouldn't even be doing this," he snapped back, slouching into his chair. Richard looked the man over, he was just as casual as she was. A t-shirt advertising South Park and blue jeans. He was starting to feel overdressed for his kidnapping.

She turned to look at him straight on. "This? This is probably the least illegal thing I-hell-we've done in years."

Richard grunts again, louder this time, to bring focus back to him. The woman laughs, "Sorry. We do this a lot. We're big fans of yours Mr. Castle." He rolled his eyes. "I know, doesn't really seem like it with having you tied up and all. Though with our...situation we couldn't just set up a meet and greet with you. I'm Lizzie and he's Rick." She let out a peel of laughter, "You're both Rick." Lizzie took a moment to recover, "Anyway, we really couldn't just walk up to you since you're working with Detective Beckett."

"She's going to know we're here anyway," Rick cuts in. "Jason will be here soon and filling her in on everything."

Beckett. How did she know these people? They must be criminals of some sort. She had to notice he was gone by now right? Beckett would be looking for him. Any minute she would be bursting through that door. All of that flashed through Richard's mind in a second. Then another thought came to him, he thought he knew a bit about this woman in front of him. It was a name he knew he wasn't suppose to know, but had heard bits of information about through his years of researching for books. Was this the same woman he had heard about from ex-convicts, grieving families, and FBI agents?

"Anyway," Lizzie pressed on, "We'd like to have our own little chat with you since we're such big fans. So, we'd like to take the tape off your mouth if we could. Okay?"

Richard nodded quickly, he was ready with his own questions. Lizzie leaned forward to pull the tape from his mouth. He began talking before it had been half removed, "Are you the psychopath Lizzie? Who's been killing for like 15 years?"

She sits back down in her chair and smiles, pleased to be recognized, "It's only been 11, but yes that's me."

Richard's heart skipped a beat. It was true that the level of danger he was in just shot through the roof, but that didn't stop him from being excited. How often did you get this close to a real psychopath?

* * *

Once Kate quickly pulled a confession out of the victim's mother, she didn't pause to move on to what was really on her mind. Their case had started at seven that morning and she had it closed by lunch time. She had been tossing around ideas about what could have happened to Castle the entire time. An hour after they first noticed he was a no show, she had put Esposito on trying to track him down. Kate was holding off calling Martha and Alexis as long as possible, to save them from any false worry. A bit before going in to question the woman, Esposito had informed her that he was going for Castle's phone records, see if anyone suspicious contacted him lately. So all she had to do for the moment was sit in her chair and stare into the blank computer screen; which was the position she was in when the FBI agents walked in the door. Everyone else stopped and looked and the group of three men, Kate continued to stare. They made their way into Captain Montgomery's office. The rest of the department began to murmur about the men, but Kate was none the wiser to the rise in noise either. What finally caught her attention was Captain Montgomery barking at her from his doorway a minute later.

Kate made the few short steps to his office, where she finally saw the FBI agents. One was big, blond, and looked pissed-probably the head of the team-as he stood next to Montgomery. The other two were sitting in the chairs, Kate didn't pay these two much attention. She directed her attention to the blond and her boss, "Can I help you?"

The blond stepped forward, "My name is Jason Kings. We are part of a team on an ongoing investigation of a woman named Lizzie, last name unknown. We believe she is in New York City and looking to kidnap Richard Castle, who we know has been working with you."

Kate froze for a second, felt like the room had turned to ice and left her stuck in time. The next second it heated up, her heart racing in her chest. "She's going to kill Ca-Richard?" For some ungodly reason she felt like being formal with these Feds.

"No, not him. She's a fan of his. We think she'll see it as a fun little game, since he's so close to the police now."

"Who is this woman?" Kate asked.

One of the agents stood up behind her, like a museum attraction that you put a quarter into so it would tell you some bit of history, she turned to see him, "Unknown as to why she started killing. We're fairly certain she started about eleven years ago, we've only been building the case for the past six. She is a psychopath, takes pride in her murders. Believes she is in the right as all of her victims are guilty of some crime. Very open in her methods and relentless in her murders."

Very well memorized, she commented in her mind. Kate turned back to Agent Kings, "She could already have him. He was a no show this morning at our crime scene. We've been trying to track him down, one of my guys is getting the phone records."

Like a well cued actor, Esposito stepped in the doorway. He looked confused before he realized there were three men he didn't know standing in front of him. "Should I come back later?"

"No," both Kate and Jason answered. Kate stepped closer to him, "Find anything in the records?"

"Only thing that I found odd was the text you sent Castle five minutes after you called him. Second body found at 3249 Sundale Apt. #28. Moving there," he read and then looked back to Kate. "What body?"

"I didn't send that. When have you known me to text anyway?"

"Never, which added to the weirdness of it." They all looked to Jason for some kind of answer.

Which he was ready with. "She's probably been watching you and him. Getting to know your schedules and habits. After she knew you had called him with a case, she just used your number to get him where she wants him."

"She's a genius psychopath?" Montgomery asked.

"She's got people of her own."

"There's a killer?" Esposito asked. "Wait, she's got Castle? She's got people? I don't have people, how come crazy killers always have people?"

* * *

A fleeting thought told him to stop being stupid and worry about his life being in danger. Though this was Richard Castle, who currently was in a rut for his next Nicki Heat book, so smart thinking would come at another time. "I have heard about you in snips of conversations for years. From what I've heard you've been around. Why is there not more on you? Lizzie Watches on TV? Posters with your face and news at 11 with your latest crime?"

She laughed, "Because they don't want to admit I exist yet."

"Who are they?" He scooted the chair an inch closer to the woman.

"FBI mostly. I think I have a whole team there that keeps my name under the radar."

"And a smaller team that keeps being a pain in the ass," Rick spoke up again, which got a sharp hit from Lizzie.

"Be nice to my boys. They try hard to kill me all the time. It's hard enough that they fail at their job over and over," she laughed. "They don't need you poking fun at them."

Richard smirked, "You have a FBI team following you?"

"Headed by Mr. Jason Kings. Who should," she glanced at her watch, "be with your Detective Beckett right now. Think I should give him a call?" Lizzie pulled out a cell phone and dialed a number quickly.

"You have his number?" Richard laughed.

"Oh, it's so much fun," she said with a large smile spread over her face.

The call was picked up on the other side, Lizzie put it on speaker, "You got some god damned nerve-"

"Hello Sweetie," she purred. "How is your morning going? Mine has been very exciting."

"I would guess, since kidnapping a famous person is new for you. Please tell me he's okay," he pleaded.

"I'm a fan. I would never hurt him. Say hello Mr. Castle," she held it out to him.

A thought said shout out your address, but it wasn't a very loud thought. So he simply replied, "Hello. "

Lizzie tilted the phone back toward herself, "See? He'll be back to you in a little bit. We're just finishing up an interview."

"They just got a location from Richard Castle's phone, so you better finish it up quick," he ended the call. Lizzie laughed, something he realized she did a lot, and stuck it back in her pocket. She continued to laugh for a few minutes.

"Might I ask, what is so funny?" Richard asked the other Rick.

Lizzie answered though, through her laughter, "He thinks we're at the same spot. You'd think he'd know by now."

Richard looked around, he hadn't even noticed they had moved. No longer did they sit in a small, shabby apartment, but in some suburban home. How did they move him here? Why did he not notice before? His attention went back to the psychopath before him. "So you two have some kind of love/hate relationship going?"

Her dieing laughter came to a quick stop. Lizzie turned cold quickly and it showed mostly in her voice, "That is something we will not discuss."

Back off, his common sense told him and for once he listened to it. So he moved on to another question, which he hoped wouldn't put him over the line again. "Now, no offense, but you don't seem really, well, crazy enough to be some killer."

"That's because I've already killed somebody," her eyes shifted upstairs and a devilish grin spread across her face. "You should have seen me yesterday. Took so long to get here, I was twitchy. See my situation is that I really, really, really like to kill people. It's not like I get off on it, but I just get that job-well-done feeling. Like when you finish a book and it goes through all the hopes of getting to the shelf. You're nervous about what everyone will think, but you're still excited about the whole thing. I'm not really nervous, but you get the idea. Right?"

"I think." Richard enjoyed sick and twisted, but he wasn't sure he wanted to get into the mind of this woman for too long. "So you get antsy and just off somebody?"

"Not just anybody," she snapped. "Something else those FBI agents don't want to admit is that I only take out bad guys. I'm very picky about who I kill, it has to seem like they deserve to die. I have standards."

"You're like Batman," he said smiling, "except you kill people."

"I think we've gone far enough with this," Rick cut in, "You're getting a bit too chatty about yourself Lizzie." Richard assumed that with Lizzie's mind in a constant state of Crazy Town, Rick had to be the voice of reason whenever it was needed.

She sighed, looking very much disappointed, "He's right. Before we end this though. Can I get an autograph? It'll require me undoing one of your hands and I just want to know you won't do anything stupid, Mr. Castle."

"No, I'll sign a book for my most infamous fan." Beckett was going to kill him for how he was behaving, but he really couldn't stop himself from still being excited by this.

Lizzie moved around him and untied his right hand. She had a book near his chair, Heat Wave, and handed it up to him, along with a pen. Richard scribbled out a little note and then signed his name on the bottom of the page. He handed it back to Lizzie and Rick's hand came in from the other side with the rag from before. There was a faint "Thanks Mr. Castle," before he blacked out for the second time.

* * *

When Richard was awoken again, it was back in the apartment he'd originally been snatched from. Beckett was leaning over him, along with another man he didn't know. Beckett was questioning him-very loudly-, "Castle, are you okay?"

"Yes and don't shout. Mind if I have room to sit up?"

"Sure you're okay to do that?" though she did move back for him. The new man followed suit.

"Yeah, I was just knocked out. They were very nice for psychopaths." The received a hard look from Beckett.

"Psychopath and her assistant," the man corrected. "The man you saw doesn't do any of the killing. He just finds some of the work and means to get around."

Richard took a second to look the man over. High end suit and a pissed off face, "You must be FBI agent Jason Kings. The one tailing Lizzie."

"Yes. Did she tell you anything about why she was here in New York City?"

"No, well not if there's another reason for her to be here. She's already killed somebody." Whoa there Richard, sounded a bit too happy with that. He moved his voice to a level that sounds more serious, "We were in a suburb. Though I don't have any idea which one. I don't know anything else."

"Damn," Jason walked away from them, to talk to his own team.

"What did she do to you?" Beckett asked, she was looking him over like there would be a tribal marking cut into his butt cheeks.

"Nothing," but he remembered the black eye he probably had. "The bruise was the guy, Rick. He thought I'd scream or something. Lizzie smacked him hard for that," he had to check his voice again. He was replaying the event with a little too much enjoyment. "We just talked and then she had be sign a book. Then I was back here."

"Your mouth was uncovered and you didn't try calling for help?" she asked, unbelieving that he would say no.

"Well, she...uh...she asked very nicely that I not. Would you really want me on the bad side of a killer? She's a big fan too."

She was looking at him like she'd never seen him before. "Unbelievable Castle," she said as she stood and walked away from him. "Take the rest of the day off Castle, I've got paperwork to fill out from the case this morning."

"The body at the Hilton!" Richard nearly jumped off the ground to land on his feet and follow after her. He was behind her in three large steps. "How is that going?"

Kate didn't break her pace down the hallway, "Already closed it Castle, sorry."

"What happened? Who died? Who did it?" he rushed out the questions. Meanwhile, the rest watched him in amazement. Richard Castle had just been returned from being kidnapped by a psychopath, but that wasn't slowing him down.

Kate stepped into the elevator, but quickly turned around to hold Castle out. She looked around him to Jason down the hall, "I'd like to offer my help while she is in the city."

"I'm sure I'll be calling that offer in soon," he replied.

Kate removed her hand from Richard's chest, but he didn't dare budge. She pressed the close door button and meet his pleading stare. "A man was beaten to death. It was done with a bust of his father's face and he was killed," the door was sliding closed on her, "by his-" the door snapped shut.

Richard stood stunned for a few seconds, taking in the little information she had given and wanting to know what she had been about to say. He finally remembered how to move and pounded on the elevator button, hoping it'd bring Beckett back to him. When it did arrive, sadly, it was empty. Esposito and Ryan stepped past him into the cart. He pleaded with them, "Who did it?"

"We were told not to tell," Ryan replied.

"Or face the wrath of Beckett," Esposito added. "You know how scary she is."

Richard stepped inside with them, not ready to give up. "Come on guys, I won't tell."

"But I'd know," Beckett calmly replied from behind him. Richard, who actually hit the top of the cart he'd jumped so high, spun around to her looking bewildered. She had pressed up against the side when the door opened. The doors closed and they took the short ride down. "Now we've both been scared out of our minds today."

Richard thought about asking who the murderer was again. Then he thought about asking just how worried had she been about him that morning. Next, he thought about getting an ice pack for his head. Finally, he decided he was done thinking for the day and went to grab a taxi to go home.


End file.
